Shadow on the Wall

Works like The Window (1949) and The Night of the Hunter (1955) belong to a relatively small subset of noir: the child-in-danger film. Whether the child is sole witness to a violent crime or possesses information about the location of stolen loot, it must have been shocking in the 40’s and 50’s to watch adults plotting to murder children on screen. In Pat Jackson’s Shadow on the Wall, the child in danger is Susan Starrling (Gigi Perreau), who hasn’t spoken since seeing her stepmother Celia (Kristine Miller) murdered right in front of her; while her father David (Zachary Scott) sits on Death Row for the crime, despite having been passed out while the shooting occurred, Susan may have seen a third party in the room but is afraid to talk about it. Her fears soon prove well-founded when attempts on her life are made. Ann Sothern plays Susan’s aunt, Dell Faring, who starts out as a victim of infidelity but loses our sympathy pretty fast, and Nancy (Reagan) Davis becomes the only future First Lady of the United States to appear in a film noir, here playing Dr. Caroline Canford, the psychiatrist hoping to recover Susan’s memory. Previn’s frequently innovative score and June’s occasional low-key lighting add just the right amount of menace, and Jackson never lets us see the little girl physically suffering (after an attempt to drown her, her unconscious body is just off screen as the medical staff give her CPR, which somehow makes the scene creepier).